This is a common problem – too common. The people in the company responsible for customs and trade compliance do not work closely with the computer programmers as software is being developed — and mistakes are made. The computer programmer does his or her job in preparing the code, but does not have any
Anyone who watches “The Big Bang Theory” knows about Schrödinger’s cat. The cat was both thought to be dead and thought to be not dead at the same time. There is a similar paradox for Canadian companies who sell to the United States and/or China. Canadian goods may be thought to be not subject to
Canada is nearing a trade law crisis point that, quite frankly, is avoidable and easily solved. There are too few permanent members of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) for the workload. Section 3 of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act provides for the appointment of a Chairman and six (6) permanent members to the
The U.S. federal government was shut down at midnight this morning after a funding bill did not get 60 votes in the United States Senate. While the politicians work to find a solution before Monday, Canadians are reminded that the last U.S. federal government shut down lasted 16 days and a previous shutdown lasted 27
Many U.S. and foreign companies that sell goods on Internet-based retail platforms (both in-house platforms and Amazon-type platforms) should ask more questions as they access Canada’s consumer market. Often, the first question asked by the foreign company is how to access the Canadian market (as they see dollar signs). After they foreign company figures out
We have been contacted by clients who have returned to Canada (usually from France) and they have brought a commercially sealed jar or two of “fois gras de canard” or “fois gras de canard entier”. Unfortunately for these clients, they have been sent to the Secondary Inspection Area and the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”)
Canada’s H.S. codes and duty rates are contained in a schedule to the Customs Tariff. Every year, Canada publishes online the Departmental Consolidation of the Customs Tariff. This is chapter-by-chapter files (html and pdf files) with Canada’s tariff rates and a column setting out tariff reductions under Canada’s various free trade agreements.
It is that time of year again – time to obtain or prepare new Certificates of Origin. A Certificate of Origin may apply to either a single importation of goods or to multiple importations of identical goods exported to a free trade partner within a 12-month period, (called a “blanket certificate”). Blanket Certificates of Origin
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (also known as the “CITT”) is an independent, Canadian quasi-judicial administrative tribunal that adjudicates a variety of international trade cases and matters. The CITT is the place to go to receive a fair, timely, transparent and effective resolution of a trade-related dispute and/or government-mandated inquiry/dispute, provided that the trade-related dispute
Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in October 2017
You receive an invoice from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for additional duty assessed on an entry. When do you have to pay it? Presumably the answer is within thirty (30) days, but maybe not!
One of the members of the trade bar was recently